Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist

Monday, 8 April 2013

I had to delete this post recently because for some reason it garnered dozens of weird spam comments every day! So, from memory, here is Fleetway's 'Scouse Mouse' comic which I helped George Nicholas devise along with Nick Reynolds and Julie Evans back in 1988. We worked together in what was basically a shed in the far outskirts of the furthest part of the most distant bit of the county- yes, it took ages to commute. Scouse Mouse was George Nicholas's creation back in 1983- by the time I joined the team, he had published quite a few Scouse Mouse products and painted him into the Longest Mural In The World at Alder Hey Children's Hospital. We ran this particular comic with Bob Paynter at Fleetway for six months, merging with Whizzer and Chips where we ran for about another six or nine months. I made my scripting debut with this comic, writing, drawing, inking, colouring, lettering, as we all did.

The Scouse Mouse strips occasionally did politics, but mainly social issues. They were published elsewhere, but not for long. I do remember writing to regional newspapers with information packs, where we'd changed the name to 'Ricky Rodent' or 'Ralphy Rat. Never really took off.